Combined milk and mail box.



A. GUTOWSKI & T. S. BLAZUCKI.

COMBINED MILK AND MAH. BOX.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. at. 1916.

Patented July 18, 1916.

WMHHH III. HI I fl I A m M/WTOFMW TED STATES-{PA oF uoE.

COMBINED MILK AND MAIL BOX.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 31, 1916. Serial No. 87,899.

Toall whom it may concern Be it known that we, ANTHONY GUTOWSKI andTHADDEUS S. BLAZUCKI, citizens of the United States, residing atDetroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigan, have invented a certain newand useful Improvement in Combined Milk and Mail Boxes, and declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, suchas will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to makeand use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to combined milk and mail boxes. It isconstructed to operate as a container for either milk or mail, but theinvention is especially capable of use as a container for articles thathave some weight, such as a bottle of milk. When so used, itautomatically locks itself when an article of this character is placedwithin it. Automatic locking containers of this kind are not broadlynew. Our invention as regards the milk container, considered apart fromthe combined mail box and milk container, inheres in the mechanism forautomatically locking the door through which the article is placed andalso in the double arrangement of latches, one of which is trapped whenthe locking mechanism is put into operative position by the weight ofthe article. These features will more fully appear in the description.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation, the door being open.Fig; 2 is a vertical section. Fig. 3 is a section dktheoutside-controllable latch. Fig. 4 is a sec tion of the latch adapted tobe trapped by the automatic locking mechanism.

a indicates the casing which may be of various conformations and whichis provided at the top with a lid 6 provided with a lock 0, and this lidis ordinarily kept locked. At the front a door (Z is supported uponhinges and is provided with an outside latch e and an inside latch g.The outside latch can be operated from the outside .by theknob h, butthe inside latch is trapped to lock the door when the hook z is drawndown in registry with the opening 3' in the door jamb. This hook isdropped down in registry with the opening in the door jamb .by thedepression of the platform is. This elbow reciprocate vertically in thehousing n on the lnslde of the casing a. The plat form is normally heldin its upward position within the casing or any other, article ofPatented July 18, 1916.

similar weight, the platform is is depressed as shown in the dottedlines of Fig. 2. Consequently the hook 11 drops down across the openingj. The cam :12 serves to throw the hook over against the inside of thedoorjamb and hold it there. Hence, when the delivery man slams the doorgshut, the inner latch g is trapped behind the hook i.

Consequently the doorcannot be opened and the contents of the casing canonly be taken out by using a key and lifting the lid 6. Of course, whenthe article is removed from the platform, the hook i is withdrawn fromthe opening in the jamb and when the door is again grasped, the outsidelatch may be removed by the knob h and the inside latch is not trappedbut passes freely through the opening j in the jamb. This container mayvery nicely be also used as a mail box without materially enlargingitscubical capacity. The lid is provided with a slot p ordmarily coveredby a small hinged cover 9. Through this slot the mail may be dropped,and inmilk and mail box is that either compartment can be enlarged atthe expense of the other compartment when necessary, and consequentlythe entire container does not have to be as large as if it were simply acase of a box for one kind of articles added to a box for another kindof articles. By the use of the swinging partition 1' which is ordinarilykept, in the position shown in the full lines by the spring 8, the milkcompartment may be enlarged as shown in the dotted lines of Fig. 2'." Thmilk bottle will push the partition 1' back to the position shown in thedotted lines, but it will never push it back so far as to bring thepartition under or to the rear ofthe slot 79 so that the mail will dropinto the milk compartment. To prevent the milk bottle from so doing, astop strip at is attached to the platform so that the bottle can neverbe shoved any farther than this strip, which will not be far enough topush the swinging partition 7" beyond the mail slot 7). The spring u isused at the hinges of the lid 1) to prevent a too sudden and noisy dropot'the lid.

Whatwe claim is:

1. An automatic locking receptacle, having in combination, acasing'provided with a hinged lid and a swinging door at the side, meansfor locking the lid, an outside-controlled latch on the swinging door, asecond latch unsusceptible to control from the outside adapted to swingthrough an opening in the jamb, and a latch trap adapted to be drawnacross the opening in the jamb by the weight of an article inserted inthe cas 5. An automatic locking receptacle, having in combination, acaslng provided with a lid and with a swinging'door," means for lockingthe lid, anoutside-controlled latch, a second latch unsusceptible tooutside control, a hookadapted to be drawn down in menses the path ofthe second latch to trap the same, a movable platform normally raised,and connections between the swinging platform and the hook to draw thehook down to trap the second latch when an article rests upon theplatform.

3. An automatic locking receptacle, having in combination, a casingprovided with a lid, means for locking the lid, a swinging cation.

ANTHONY GUTOWSKI. THADDEUS S. BLAZUCKI.

